For several decades, environmentalists made opposition to nuclear power the centerpiece of their movement. That was always an ill-informed position, and it became perverse when the environmentalists’ focus shifted to global warming and CO2–which, of course, nuclear power plants do not emit.
The Europeans, especially the Germans, made a terrible blunder by scaling back their use of nuclear energy. They finally have figured this out:
EU Commission President, von der Leyen:
While in 1990, one third of Europe’s electricity came from nuclear, today it’s only close to 15%.
This reduction in the share of nuclear was a choice.
And in hindsight, it was a strategic mistake for Europe to turn its back on a… pic.twitter.com/PAIdWsCdhG
— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) March 10, 2026
The United States has never used nuclear energy as widely as we should, probably in part because of our vast fossil fuel resources. For a while it seemed that nuclear power might die out, but it is enjoying a resurgence, because it is cheap and–for those who are concerned about CO2–it doesn’t emit any. Currently, however, nine states ban the construction of new nuclear power plants. Not shockingly, Minnesota is one of them:
State governments and public utilities commissions around the country should be advocating for nuclear power, rather than treating it as an undesirable stepchild. Here in Minnesota, American Experiment has launched a campaign that we call Nuke the Mandate, Free the Nukes. We are linking repeal of the ban on nuclear power to repeal of our state’s absurd (and unattainable) requirement that all electricity be generated by CO2-free sources by 2040. We are running this 30-second ad on television:
We also have billboards up in the Twin Cities metro area:
The rising cost of energy is rapidly assuming importance as a political issue. Anyone who claims to care about “affordability” but also advocates wind and solar power, and opposes nuclear energy, is a fraud.
